Last reply, since you keep telling me things I already know, I see no point in prolonging this: Where have I indicated anywhere that NATO or the US should become involved in this war? Precisely nowhere. There, done.
However, I do feel for the average Ukrainian. I know many of them personally, nearly all of whom (that I know) are deeply Christian. Some of whom I am sure have been killed. I have been there many times. In fact, I was in Kiev at the first symposium of “RUKH” in 1990, the short-lived political umbrella group for all non-communists. I witnessed in the convention center there the first public showing in Ukraine of the documentary produced from Robert Conquest’s book, “The Harvest of Sorrow,” about the 1932-33 holodomor. I am also very familiar with the history of the horrors of WWII, including the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis and their enablers (both German and ethnically otherwise) that took place in the blood lands of the former Pale of Settlement between Berlin and Moscow. There is an ocean of guilt to go around for all the atrocities committed during that as well. And, yes, I also feel for all the naive young Russian soldiers, who don’t even know why they are in Ukraine and who were also lied to ... and their families, many of whom, sadly, will mourn them.
I am well aware of the corruption that exists both there and in their giant neighbor to the northeast. It has absolutely permeated both societies. How could it be otherwise after three generations of communism and the systemic corruption and disregard for life that it bred and fed?
And, yes, I too am a conservative and looked on with disbelief and foreboding when Biden was inaugurated. I knew it would bring nothing good to America or the world.
No, it is not our war. But it remains enormously tragic.
Well said.
It’s worth adding, the vast number of boots on the ground are
1. Russian conscripts and trainees, who according to Russian regulations shouldn’t even be on the front line. No wonder there’s been so many military strategy fails; perhaps they were literally used to soften up Ukrainian defences before the professional forces, Chechen and Syrian big guns arrived.
2. Ukrainian conscripts - although a lot of the women and kids who have escaped across the border were escorted there by their sons and husbands who then returned to the front, so they are at least willing conscripts who know what they’re getting into.
3. Civilians whose escape routes are blocked.
It’s too easy to paint any of these groups as inherently wrong. Theyre all stuck with no clear options. The armchair generals who say the Ukrainian men and boys should go out into a field somewhere, away from the civilian “shield”, and face the Russians head on, are off their trolleys... Six times now the Russians have bombarded their own agreed humanitarian corridors for their own Russian allied civilian population, during ceasefires negotiated with the Red Cross.
If this was your neighborhood and the cellars full of women and kids that you’re trying to protect was your community, would you risk leaving them exposed in order to do a Custer’s Last Stand in no man’s land?
All of the justifications Putin gives for the conflict, be it nazis or NATO or EU or LEBENSRAUM or whatever (the justification changes and Putin didn’t talk about bio labs until well into the conflict) don’t alter the fact that everyone has a natural moral right to defend their own home, family, and community from invaders.
Stand your ground.
The minute the men in Ukraine were picking up weapons to defend their families from indiscriminate Russian attacks, it stopped being a simple question of poor scared Russia stepping up to squash some nazis.
The Ukrainian president might’ve been a dodgy character, with unexplained wealth, and more. But by staying in Kyiv and leading its defense from the front with good wordsmithery and humour despite being obviously exhausted, he has become a symbol of what REAL leadership in wartime looks like.
He even has Russians from the separatist region joining him because they see him as their defender and Putin as not even an ally, let alone a liberator. They are devastated by that utter betrayal.
All I am trying to convey to people, is that there is plenty of blame to go around for any war and any negative issue.
Slavery is an example where there is plenty of blame to go around. Whites were not the only ones participating in that evil, and it certainly did not encompass every white person, as the majority did not participate in slavery at all.
While I know that Putin invaded, what I do not know are all the facts that led him to choose to invade. The main thing we all have heard was the denazifying of Ukraine. The immediate reaction was that Putin was lying about Nazis even existing in Ukraine. However, when you look into that claim, you find that indeed there is a rather large contingency of Ukrainian citizens who do identify as Nazis. Furthermore, these who identify as Nazis are savage monsters themselves, and the Ukrainian government has brought them into the military as a quasi-force, who detest Russians and have no qualms about openly being hostile to any Russian they meet.
To wrap this up, I am trying to make people think beyond just the fact that Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine, and to know that there are people in Ukraine who are indeed Nazis. They are ruthless, and seem to have free rein to create havoc for Russian citizens in the eastern part of Ukraine. That the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk wish to be considered separatist Republics and claimed independence from Ukraine and they made a bid to become part of Russia.
In other words, let them know there are always two sides to a story, and to not take sides when all you are being told is one side.
Ukraine Declares Journalist a 'Russian Terrorist' As Her Reporting Undermines Western Narratives
It is not shocking that German journalist Alina Lipp has been labeled a “terrorist” by the Ukrainian government when U.S. President Joe Biden’s government is doing the same thing to individuals against his narratives.
Last week RAIR Foundation USA translated a video by a young German journalist living in Donetsk, Alina Lipp. After her video on the Donbas region went viral, she was registered on Ukraine’s official Terrorist website as a “Russian terrorist.” Lipp is neither a Russian citizen nor does she have a Russian passport.
Lipp’s pro-Donbas reporting is believed to be why she was classified as a terrorist. She has repeatedly claimed that the Ukrainian military has been attacking Donbas Russians for the past eight years. In Lipp’s viral video, she highlighted that the people living in Donbas want to belong to Russia and have been “thankful that Russia finally did something.” She stressed, “Finally, the people here have been liberated from the terror that they’ve been experiencing for the last eight years” from the Ukrainian government.
So, why is it we have heard nothing in regards to this 8 year long conflict going on in Eastern Ukraine?
Could it be that they (the media and the previous Obama administration) didn't want to create sympathy for the Russians living there who were constantly under attack. Are they not innocents too in your eyes?
Perhaps this was why Putin finally invaded I don't know, and perhaps we will never know the real reason he invaded. Just saying that Putin invaded a sovereign nation means nothing, without knowing why. Now we have 2 possible reasons. Both may be a part of it, or they may have no part in his decision. The one that has not been mention in our conversation, is NATO. Whatever the real reason may be, it was obviously of great enough concern, for him to actually do what he finally decided to do. Perhaps he just thought the timing was right to bring back the USSR. Though, in my mind I don't see that as the reason at all. For if that had been the reason, I think we would have seen a much more aggressive attack taking place. His lack of aggression says to me, that he is making every consideration to minimizing damage done to the innocents in Ukraine. He even allowed those who wished to flee to flee in safety.
But more importantly, it does not make the girl this story is about, an accurate story either. It's way too simplistic, at least for me, to buy into it totally.